Lord of the Ring
by flamanipulator
Summary: Alternate to solution Swan Song. Dean has a crazy idea on how to save his brother from jumping into the pit, but has no real idea if it will work. He'll do anything to save his brother; even risk his own life. Again. Death should not be trifled with.


**So this is a one-shot, but I've got ideas to make it longer. If you guys like it, review and tell me what you think, and I'll see about extending it.**

Dean pushed the rings together once again, somewhat scared of the intense magnetic pull that forced them all together. _What causes that? _He wondered to himself, not quite sure he wanted to know the answer. _Oh, Sammy. _Tears pricked the backs of his eyes as he thought once again about what he was going to let his brother do.

Pulling the rings apart, he ran through in his mind what was going to happen. Again. _What I wouldn't give to save you from this…If only there was some way…_ Looking down at the rings, he frantically scrambled his brain for some way to stop his brother from jumping into the Pit. He sighed as he was drawn from his search by the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Hey, Dean." Twirling the ring in his finger, Dean tried to ignore the man that stepped in front of him. "You doing okay?" Scowling, Dean gave up ignoring him.

"I'm letting my brother jump into Hell forever. Do I look okay, Bobby?" He tried his hardest to not let his voice crack, but he couldn't tell if he was successful. He stopped spinning the ring in his fingers and just stared at it, letting it move between the tips of his fingers.

"Hey, Dean, I'm not sure that playing with that thing is the best idea. After all, that is the thing that gave Death a lot of his power." Dean continued staring at the ring, acting as though he hadn't heard his friend speak; however, Bobby's words rang through his mind long after the man walked away. The white-jeweled ring seemed to stare into his eyes as he glared at it, mocking him. Daring him to put it on. Giving in, Dean slipped the ring onto his finger.

Dean and Sam refused to struggle against the demons that dragged them into the small room. The demons thought that they had caught them; the infamous Winchesters had been tricked! Sam glanced at Dean briefly as they entered the presence of the Devil, the cold radiating from him in nauseating waves. "Sorry, if it's a bit chilly." Lucifer said to the boys without turning. "Most people think I burn hot; it's actually quite the opposite."

"Well, I'll alert the media." Dean announced sarcastically, cold fingers brushing along his spine as he tried not to think about his situation. Finally the Devil turned around and looked at them. "Help me understand something, guys. I mean, stomping through my front door is…a tad suicidal? Don't you think?"

"We're not here to fight you." Dean hated how his brother sounded so confident. The demon blood gave him immense powers, which gave Sam an inflated sense of his own abilities; Dean was always unsettled by it. "No? Then why are you-"

"I want to say 'yes.'" Sam interrupted. That move probably would have gotten anyone else killed, but Sam was special. "Excuse me?" Satan asked after a short pause, confusion etched on his face. Dean watched as Sam closed his eyes briefly, tensing as the demons holding them fell to the ground: dead. _Now's my chance._ Dean thought to himself, preparing to do something incredibly risky and probably stupid.

"Chalk full of Ovaltine, are we?" Dean slipped his right hand into his pocket, carefully eying his brother and the Devil conversing. "You heard me." _That's right Sam, keep his attention on you._ "Yes."

"You're serious." Dean carefully slid his finger into the cool band of the ring in his pocket, stealthily slipping his hand out and behind his back. "Look," Sam said, "judgment day is a run-away train, we get it now." Dean pushed the ring all the way onto his finger with his other hand, giving the ring a little twist at the same time. "We just want off."

"Meaning?" the Dean could see eagerness growing on Lucifer's face; it made him sick. _Hurry up…_

"Deal of the century: I give you a free ride, but when it's all over I live, he lives," Dean's anxiety grew as Satan became pensive, his mouth turning down in a scowl. "You bring our parents back-"

"Okay, can we please drop the tone a nouvella?" Sam scowled as he was interrupted; catching onto the fact that something was wrong. "I know you have the rings, Sa-"

_CRASH!_ The sound of shattering glass cut Lucifer off and was followed by a deafening sizzle and blinding flash. Dean winced as the lightning bolt streaked into the room and struck the Devil, electrocuting him with a deadly bolt. Dean pulled Sam backwards and away from the crackling figure as electricity continued to pour into his body, charring the floor around him.

Finally the onslaught ended and Lucifer crashed to his knees, breathing heavily and wheezing as he tried to heal his host's body. "What…what was that?" Sam gasped, clutching Dean's arm as though he could stop anything like that from happening again. _Well, I can._ Dean thought, suppressing a chuckle. Stepping forward, he gently shook Sam's grasp and moved towards Lucifer, taking in the crouched figure.

"What…what have you done to me?" Lucifer cried out weakly, struggling to lift himself from his hands, striking uselessly at Dean; the hand was batted away as though a child had thrown the punch. "Dean?" Sam asked, growing wary of his brother's behavior.

"You see, Lucifer, horsemen aren't the only ones who can operate the rings." Sam gasped as he heard the words leave his brother's mouth. Casting his eyes over Dean, he found Death's ring on his brother's finger. "I figured, if the rings give the Horsemen most of their power, why wouldn't they give me the same power? So I tried Death's ring on and do you know what I saw?" Lucifer lifted himself up so that he was just on his knees, but gave no other answer to Dean. "I saw hundreds of Reapers. They swarmed around me, just waiting for me to do something so that they could reap the person I was displeased with.

"I felt so much _power_ flowing through me; I could do anything."

"Dean, what are you doing?" Sam honestly had a small idea, but it scared him almost as much as giving in to Lucifer had. "I'm ending this, Sammy. I'm going to save you from the pit; save this world from the Armageddon that these angel douche bags have planned." _And I'm saving myself from being alone. _Sam shivered as Dean revealed his intentions; Dean had never been one to beat around the bush.

"You are going to kill me?" Lucifer asked weakly, his breath still coming in short gasps. "You think that you, an insignificant little human, can kill me? I am Lucifer!"

"Maybe," Dean conceded, but Sam noticed the twist he gave the ring on his finger. He almost expected it when a second bolt of lightning lanced through the room and struck Lucifer in the back, hurling him across the room and into some of the ratty furniture. "But I have Death's ring, and you have just been hit with two, count 'em two, bolts of lightning that would have killed any other being. You're using all the power you have just to stay alive right now." Sam's jaw dropped as Dean spoke so confidently, missing the third twist of the ring.

Dean could feel enormous power surging through his body as he twisted the ring again, paying no heed to the Reapers who rushed behind him toward the bodies on the floor. The two previously-demons rose up and moved faster than the human eye could catch to Lucifer's side, hauling him up to hang between them. They held him before Dean, the two Reapers giving him his prize.

"Dean…" Sam breathed out; startled by the sudden vitality in the bodies he had killed. Sam was beginning to grow scared of his brother; of the power that Dean was wielding so confidently. He could only watch in rapt fascination as his big brother took care of him once again.

"Hey, Luci, wake up." Satan's head bobbed up weakly at Dean's voice, trying to hold some manner of dignity. "Lucifer," Dean said menacingly, moving to stand right in the Devil's face, "you had a hand in killing almost everyone I cared about. You tried to take my brother away from me; the last thing on this planet that I have to live for. Now, I know that you care for your brothers in some sick, twisted way that makes you kill them, but imagine if _I_ killed Michael, how would that make you feel? Probably not half as bad as I would feel over losing Sam, since you were going to kill Michael anyways."

"If you kill me… Michael…"

"Yeah yeah, Michael will come after me." Dean mocked, finishing Lucifer's sentence. "I can't see why he would, seeing as he was going to try to kill you anyways; I am just saving him some time. If he does come after me however, I'll kill him too."

Sam could tell that Dean was done talking. He watched in half fascination and half terror as his brother gazed deep into the Devil's eyes for a moment. "Dean…" he whispered, but no one paid his gasp any attention. He felt like he was going to collapse, from what he had no idea. Dean reached out his palm and gently caressed Lucifer's decrepit face, careful not to pull any rotting skin away. Sam watched, petrified, as Dean's hand left Satan's face, a light blue wisp following it. Lucifer's eyes took on a pale glow, as though they wanted to light up but couldn't get the juice.

Dean twisted the ring on his finger a final time.

Sam flinched as the light growing in Lucifer's eyes roared to life searing Sam's eyes through his closed lids. Sam could hear the scream of a dying man as the light grew so intense, the cold being replaced by a blistering heat as the Devil was torn from existence. The light faded and took the heat with it, causing Sam to fall to the ground as his knees gave way.

"Sam!" Dean turned sharply and rushed to his fallen brother, scooping the younger man's upper body into his arms. "Hey, bro, wake up. Wake up for me, Sammy." Tapping Sam's cheeks lightly, Dean breathed a sigh of relief as his eyes met with cracking blue ones. "Hey, you okay? Sam?" Sam tried to nod weakly, but he was still waking up. "Dude, you totally fainted like a chick." Dean mocked, hoping that it would help snap his brother out of his funk.

Sam was starting to really wake up now, and the magnitude of what Dean had just done smashed into him like a wrecking ball. "Dean…" Sam grabbed his brother's shoulder lightly, finding purchase for the hands he was still trying to find. Grasping Dean's shirt firmly in his hand, Sam started to let out the feelings that had been repressed by his shock. "Dean…"

"Sam?" Dean's concern was sky rocketing as Sam fisted his shirt, the younger man's eyes growing misty. He was completely caught off guard as Sam threw his other arm around his shoulders, pulling himself into Dean's chest and began to shake. "Sam, are you…" Dean felt his shirt dampening before Sam started to let the sobs become audible. "Oh, Sam…It's okay. I'm here. You're safe." Dean wrapped his other arm around his brother, pulling him tightly to him.

"Dean…thank you. Thank you so much, Dean." Sam repeated those words over and over again, shaking as Dean just held him close and let him cry out the immense relief that was drowning his system.

Dean pulled Death's ring from his finger and slipped it into his pocket as he rose with Sam, almost mourning the power that fled from him with the loss of the ring. He practically carried his little brother from the dilapidated building and out into the street, ignoring the strange looks people gave him and his sobbing brother.

"Dean? Sam?" Bobby jostled himself from the hood of the van, quickly shaking off the shock of seeing both brothers alive and well. "Dean! Sam!" Bobby sprinted as fast as he could to the two brothers, ignoring Castiel as he followed him. Wrapping both boys in a massive hug, he tried to ask all the questions flooding his mind, but was unable to get any of them into words. "Bobby, we're okay. Sam is just a little…emotional right now. Finding out that you don't have to spend eternity with the Devil in Hell will do that to a person."

"But…How?" Castiel shook his head silently, mulling over several answers in his head.

"Don't worry about it. For now, let's go get some pie."

Bobby jumped into the driver's seat and Castiel occupied shot-gun. Dean and Sam crammed into the back and simply held each other, neither one willing to let go of what they came so close to losing. Bobby pulled out from the dank alley, millions of questions flying through his mind. _They're both safe._ He told himself, content with that fact to satisfy all questions until later.


End file.
